


whatever you will

by jitteryfinch



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Emotions, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soft Boys, kind of??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 09:51:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jitteryfinch/pseuds/jitteryfinch
Summary: the beating of our hearts is the only soundORThe Raven Queen requires Kravitz’s full attention. She certainly does not have it.The actual way that communicating with reapers works is heavily inspired by “And the Gramophone Plays,” linked above!





	whatever you will

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [And the Gramophone Plays](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12886380) by [ShinyKipp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinyKipp/pseuds/ShinyKipp). 



To sleep like the dead might be the most imbecilic expression anyone had ever come up with. Since Kravitz’s mortality had become a non-issue, he didn’t sleep half as well as he used to. Not that he needed to anymore (he could give up the practice entirely, if the desire so struck him), but it was hard not to be envious when Faerun’s most accomplished naptaker was dozing so peacefully on top of him.

Taako was practically comatose, draped luxuriously over his boyfriend’s chest, messy blonde waves cascading down his bare back and looking soft and touchable under the dim glow of the string lights. His lips were parted slightly (couldn’t ever keep his mouth shut, Kravitz assumed), long lashes resting lightly against his cheeks as he laid so perfectly still that it might worry the reaper if he couldn’t feel the relaxed thrum of his heart against his skin, couldn’t see the rise and fall of his breath where his back stuck out of the rumpled sheets.  
Beautiful. 

Kravitz had been laying awake for almost an hour now, listening to Taako’s even breath, skimming a hand over his spine and smiling when it made him cuddle closer without stirring in the slightest. Finally, finally, the night started to catch up with him, sleep numbing the edges of his mind as he began to drift off.

Of course, that was when the Raven Queen elected to contact him.

Kravitz always answered when his lady called, was a dedicated and skilled reaper, but having Taako here with him complicated things. The Raven Queen didn’t see more than he allowed her to, and tended to respect his privacy, but she expected his undivided attention when he communed with her. Besides, her fondness of him often extended beyond the professional and into that of an overbearing parent, and he didn’t want to rouse her curiosity if he could help it. With a deep breath, he squeezed his eyes shut tight and opened his mind, leaving his senses of sight and touch closed off from her, and her voice penetrated his consciousness immediately.

“Evening, Kravitz.” 

“Good evening, my lady.” He replied, polite as ever even as as his thoughts shook off a sleepy slur.

“...did I wake you?” The Raven Queen asked, and her voice had an incredulous lilt to it (due to his aforementioned reaper relationship with sleep, he assumed).

“No, my lady, I was just resting.” Kravitz promised. “What can I do for you?”

His goddess seemed satisfied with his answer, beginning to launch into an explanation of her call; a rundown of new possible bounties. Kravitz made mental note of his new to-do list, and she seemed to be wrapping up when something pulled his attention away.

Taako sighed, a soft, sweet sound that let Kravitz know he was nuzzling closer into his sternum, unbothered by the nightmares that usually plagued him. Any other time, such a gentle and vulnerable noise would absolutely melt his heart, but now he tensed and cut off his hearing from the Raven Queen, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t notice.

(But she was a goddess, after all.)

She paused in her instruction, suspicion coloring her next words. “Do I have your attention, Kravitz?”

“Yes.” He answered a bit too quickly, a touch too informally.

“...are you alone?” She asked, and he winced.

“No.” Kravitz admitted, and after a pause where he could practically sense his deity’s curiosity piquing to the point of no return, all of his senses returned to him in a rush.

He saw Taako’s still face, hair a little unkempt from where Kravitz’s fingers were weaving softly through it at the base of his neck, freckled shoulder blades peeking out of the sheets slung over their waists; he felt Taako’s chest pressed against his abdomen, one of his legs hitched up over his own hip, warm breath rushing over his collar— Kravitz jolted, yanking the comforter up over the two of them and cutting off his sight and touch from her again.

“My lady!” He protested, earning an irritated grumble from Taako as he was jostled, but the Raven Queen seemed unperturbed.

“I apologize, Kravitz.” His deity said hurriedly, but he could hear the amusement in her voice. “I didn’t realize you were with your beloved.”

The reaper didn’t have to feel the warmth on his cheeks to know he was flushing. He considered protesting again— he could hardly call Taako /his/, not after just a handful of dates and a few intimate nights, but the Raven Queen interrupted his unvoiced objection.

“Oh, please, of course he is, or you’d like him to be, at the very least. He certainly wants to be.” At Kravitz’s genuinely stunned silence, she continued. “Honestly, what sort of boss would I be if I didn’t use my omnipotence to check in on my favorite emissary’s heart every now and again?”

“A normal one.” Kravitz answered instinctively, disgruntled, and didn’t have time to regret it before the Raven Queen spoke again.

“Watch your tongue, child.” There was no bite to her voice— in fact, he swore he heard her giggling— but he heeded her warning regardless. “I suppose I’ll leave you be, then. We’ll commune again at dawn.”

“Wait, hold on.” And he shouldn’t press, shouldn’t question his goddess under any circumstances, but that offhanded comment was already rattling around his chest like a firecracker, and if he didn’t ask now it would only grow more and more volatile until he burst for containing it. “Why did you— what do you mean he wants to be?”

“Yours?” She finished, her feigned nonchalance doing nothing to slow his decorative heart’s sudden and fierce hammering. “You know better than to ask me such questions.”

“Answer me anyway.” Because Kravitz didn’t need to breathe, but now he couldn’t even if he wanted to—this planted hope had grabbed him with both hands and was holding tight.

“You know where to find your answer.“ The Raven Queen insisted, and then—

“Krav, baby.” Taako mewled, and Kravitz was met with a warm hand cradling his jaw, the other splayed out on his chest for support. Piercing blue eyes stared down at him, concern flickering in his gaze, and the reaper realized they were the only eyes on him. _They were alone now._ “You good? Your heart was beating crazy fast. I thought you might be having a nightmare. Do you have those? I have no fucking clue—“

Kravitz kissed the rest of his sentence away, moving his hands to Taako’s lower back and pressing him close. The elf stiffened a little, surprised, but relaxed against him soon enough, and when they broke apart, Taako’s nose was crinkled up in amusement.

“You were just having a dream about getting all up in me, huh?” He teased, but the light drum of his fingertips against the reaper’s collar wasn’t heated or coaxing, just soft and attentive and sweet. It tugged the corner of Kravitz’s mouth into a crooked smile, and he dropped his head back onto the pillow.

“No, I was awake. Just thinking.” He said, too flustered to tell anything but the truth.

“You always think so loud.” Taako mused, twisting a finger around one of Kravitz’s locs. “What about?”

“I was communing with the Raven Queen.” He admitted, and even in the dim light of the room, he saw Taako’s eyes flash in curiosity.

“Do you often pray with your dick out?” He asked, and Kravitz snorted. “I mean, I’m not here to kinkshame you, my guy, but let me in on the fun—“

“We actually were talking about you.” Kravitz supplied, and that wiped the smirk off Taako’s face, ears twitching back to press close to his skull.

“Hold up, really? Why?”

“She likes you, is all. She called you my beloved.” He said, and he just caught the blush that sprinted across the highs of Taako’s cheeks before he smothered his face in Kravitz’s shoulder.

“That’s cheesy as fuck. Goddamn.” He mumbled, but he shifted to loop his arms under Kravitz’s shoulder blades and hold him close. “Your heart’s still going real fast, babe.” 

“I was _just_ kissing you. What do you expect?” Kravitz protested, and earned another soft snicker from where his boyfriend’s mouth was pressed to his pulse. “She’s not wrong, though.” Kravitz managed to sound somewhat casual, but Taako moved a hand over his rapid heartbeat, and he knew he was sunk.

“About?” Taako tested, and the waver in his voice put them on equal ground. This was dangerous terrain— this hesitant vulnerability was something Taako could bury away in a second if he needed to, so Kravitz didn’t dare make any sudden moves, instead gliding his hands in feather light touches over the other man’s back.

“How much I like you.” 

“I am pretty great.” Taako’s usual bluster and fluff was missing in action, and Kravitz knew better than to expose the lie.

“You are. It’s no wonder I fell in love with you so fast.” And that made Taako immediately tense in his arms, and he thought maybe if he acted like it’s no big deal, they could breeze past it without much ado like a child falling on the playground. “But she let me alone when I told her I was with you. She tries not to invade my privacy when it ceases to amuse her.” 

Taako hummed in acknowledgement, not quite a laugh, but enough that Kravitz felt the danger was behind them.

“Yeah, well...” Taako started and stopped, stumbling down the path the reaper had helped him find. “I mean, I don’t mind being— we’ve got, like, a really good thing going here. Boyfriends and shit. It’s, uh, pretty fucking choice. Being your whatever. If you want me to be.”

“Mmhmm. I like being your whatever and having you as my whatever.” Kravitz replied, and Taako snorted.

“Don’t make fun of me.” He mumbled, and Kravitz hugged him tighter while he giggled.

“Never.”

“Good, because that’s all you get. I’ve reached my emotional capacity for the week, and it’s just because I’m barely awake and pretty in love with you. So yeah. Don’t get used to it. I’ma catch some fucking Z’s.” Taako spoke quickly and quietly, punctuating his statement with a peck to the corner of Kravitz’s jaw before settling back down into him.

“Sleep well, dove.” Kravitz wrapped an arm snug around his waist, and Taako sighed his appreciation at the security that blanketed him. They both stayed quiet after that, with Kravitz still lazily coming his fingers through the ends of Taako’s hair, and it seemed like the elf knocked back out in mere moments. Kravitz, again, tried his best to follow suit, and was well on his way when his deity’s voice once again snuck into his brain.

“Good work.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
